My Paleo Experience

To those of you that have been training with me for a while, I have been up and down with a few different diets, and I have experimented with various fads, all of which claim to be better than the next at delivering results.

Eventually I found a happy medium, which happened to coincide with my new passion for olympic lifting, and CrossFit. I was eating good whole foods, and not being too strict, as long as I got the carbs, proteins, and fats I needed to sustain my now more rigorous workouts.

I was challenged by a client...full paleo challenge! So as I do, it was time to do things full blast! I followed the eating plan below for a month. I wasn't overly concerned for any of the food, and welcomed the change. My only issue was giving up oats which has been my staple diet for a while now. However I managed.

	Breakfast	Am snack	Lunch	Pm Snack	Dinner
Mon	Egg white "pancakes"	Mango	Chicken salad	Almonds	Baby carrots and zuccini
	Grapes		with olive oil and lemon	Apple	cooked in coconut oil
			Juice Vinaigrette		Cauliflower mash
					Chicken breasts
Tues	Scrambled egg whites	Almonds	Left over dinner	Date squares	Chicken curry
	with mushrooms and chicken	Apple			(with coconut milk)
	Green Tea
Wed	Scrambled egg whites	Grapes	Left over dinner	Apple	Chicken stir fry
	Chicken "bacon strips"	Almonds			zuccini, spinach, carrots,
	1/4 avo
	Grapefruit
Thurs	Scrambled egg with	Grapefruit	Left over dinner	Apple	Spinach and avo omlette
	chicken, jalapeno, onion				with Butternut
	rosa tomatoes and corriander
Fri	egg white "pancake"	Hard boiled eggs  4 whites and one whole	Left over dinner	Date square	Butternut soup
	Chop banana over the top and	Hand full of berries			with caulfiflower crust
	add cocoa powder.				breadsticks
Sat	Scrambled eggs with chicken	Biltong (lean)	Left over dinner	Your choice of fruit	Meat crust quiche
	"bacon", mushrooms and	Hand full of berries
	avo
Sun	Your choice of breakfast	Raw veg (your choice)	Left over dinner	Apple	Your choice
	DON’T GO MAD…	Avo

When doing a diet that "cuts out carbs" everyone always asks what your energy levels are like. When you have a look at the eating plan, there is a lot of food! If anything, I sometimes never finished all of it, and I was training harder than ever at the time!  I must say that even through the whole thing, I still missed my oats, and it was my first meal back! 

There are a lot of good things about paleo eating. The idea of eating lots of whole foods, is one I have always been a huge fan of, and I still feel is the answer to the so called dieting secret. I do think that not being able to have some oats, or some peanut butter now and then is tough, especially on the budget! I enjoy almond butter, and would gladly replace my peanut butter, but the idea of paying four times the amount for something is something I couldn't do sustainably. In terms of supplements, I did keep my post workout protein powder in my plan. 

I do feel that this is worth a bash! There are so many cool recipes on the internet that are easily accessible, and make this eating plan quite fun. For example, I never thought I would enjoy cauliflower as much as I did when I was doing this plan! A lot of my clients battle with eating, and in terms of sharpening up your diet, I think this is a great way to make some lifestyle changes! Give it a bash, and watch the Facebook page and blog for cool and exciting paleo recipes over the next couple of weeks.